Day Fourty-Five – Happy Chinese New Year!

For the past week, all the news has been about is Valentine’s Day and the Vancouver Winter Olympics. I’m tired of hearing about both.

Take that hand from over your heart and slip it into your wallet.

Valentine’s Day seems to be more about single people wishing they had someone to spend an arbitrary day in February with than about couples sharing their love for one another. The concept almost worries me, as if this is the only day that it’s acceptable to take my girlfriend out for a nice dinner and buy her flowers.

There’s nothing romantic about following orders.

For me and the girlfriend, tonight is Sunday. It’s just another day, made a little more special by the fact that she doesn’t have to go to work tomorrow. We’ll catch up on The Office, watch tonight’s episode of Big Love and I’ll take her home. It’s the same as every other day, and I don’t love her any more or less than any other part of the year.

Nor should I.

I seem to be in the minority though. Valentine’s Day – the movie, not the day this time – has taken over the box office. It’s projected to make $60 million by the end of the President’s/Family Day weekend. That’ll be a record for this long weekend, and it makes me ponder what factors led to its success.

The cast amounts to an all-star game of stars. Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Anne Hathaway and a load of others all get together to cash in an easy pay day. It’s exactly like an all-star game. You’re not there to see them at their best, you’re just there to see them in the same spot.

The marketing has been everywhere. I’ve been told to get ready for Valentine’s Day since Christmas. And how perfect is it to watch a movie, based on the day where you spent all your money on flowers and chocolate, on the day where you spent all your money on flowers and chocolate.

In the end, Valentine’s Day, the movie, is much like Valentine’s Day, the ‘holiday’, in that it’s completely manufactured with promises of filling your heart while emptying out your wallet.